Reports say Pentagon lowering number of civilian furlough days to 11

Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel is reportedly set to announce today
the Pentagon is lowering the number of furlough days it's requiring its
employees to take from 14 to 11.

Politico is reporting Hagel will announce the change Tuesday
afternoon during a town hall meeting at the MARK Center in Alexandria, Va.

Some 800,000 civilian Department of Defense workers were
originally scheduled to take 22 days of unpaid leave but that number was
later dropped to 14 and Pentagon officials said they hoped it would fall even more.
The cuts are part of the efforts to deal with sequestration's across-the-board
cuts that are taking $42 billion from Pentagon coffers this year.

Officials have said the furlough days are necessary to maintain troop readiness and not extend deployments for those serving in Afghanistan.

Hagel's announcement will clear the way for official
furlough notifications to go out to the workforce. Once that happens, workers
will have 30 days to appeal the notice before leave can begin. If furlough
notices go out this week, the days of unpaid leave will start mid-June and run
through the end of September.

Politico reports the number of exempted workers may
increase, including Navy employees that work at shipyards. Original plans
called for limited exceptions to the furlough policy but some branches said they wanted them extended to additional critical positions.